Translingual Discrimination: Skilled Transnational Migrants in the Labour Market of Australia

Abstract

Drawing on linguistic ethnographic data, this study examines the language-based discriminatory experiences of skilled transnational migrants in the labour market of Australia. Moving beyond two main concepts of ‘interlingual’ and ‘intra-lingual’ discrimination in applied linguistics, this article points out the concept of ‘translingual discrimination’, which refers to inequality based on transnational identities’ specific linguistic repertoires and backgrounds that are substantiated by the national order of things. Translingual discrimination adds intensity to transnational processes, with the skilled migrants showing particular potential for exclusion regarding two factors: translingual ‘name discrimination’ and ‘English discrimination’. ‘Translingual name discrimination’ is a homogenous form of ‘name’ policing, evident in multiple examples where the skilled transnational migrants’ job applications are often largely rejected on the grounds of their ‘birth name’ written on their curriculum vitae. ‘Translingual English discrimination’ is another common form of discrimination, where the skilled transnational migrants become subject to discrimination based on their English proficiency and their overall language skills, leading to ‘the paradoxes of migration’—discrepancies between the imagination and the reality—where they fall from ‘hero to zero’ in the host society.

Power dynamics in translingual practices for Chinese as a Second Language writing education

“…This is mirrored in Student I's preference for immersive writinga strategy that, though helpful for increasing language proficiency, might inadvertently contribute to a cycle of linguistic privilege. This privilege often devalues the linguistic expressions of 'non-native' speakers (Flores & Rosa, 2015) and contributes to translingual discrimination (Dovchin & Dryden, 2022). This bias underlies preferences for white native English speakers in English teaching recruitment and reflects the broad impact of linguistic dominance (Ruecker & Ives, 2015).…”

“Women are capable too!” Exploring intersectionality and challenging CaLD gender stereotypes at Australian universities

“…Thus the translingual background of CaLD women only gains importance when it is legitimised by those in power; or it is deemed as inadequate when legitimisation does not occur. Translingual discrimination is, thus, the main product of power; it stratifies the registers of CaLD women, weakening their roles in the scope of language as they face a new form of linguistic discrimination and create resistance along the way (Dovchin & Dryden, 2022a). Some CaLD women are linguistically profiled (Baugh, 2003) from the moment they open their mouth (Dovchin, 2019;.…”

“…With a focus on CaLD women, this critical review article will, therefore, explore and analyse the underlying gender inequalities and stereotypes they experience in Australian tertiary institutions through new reflections of translingual discrimination (Dovchin, 2022; Dovchin & Dryden, 2022a), and other findings from our and other scholarly research on discrimination against CaLD women in Australia. The term translingual discrimination refers to the “ideologies and practices that produce unequal linguistic power relationships” between CaLD communities and dominant communities of the host society, “focusing on the central role that language plays in the enduring relevance of discrimination disparity, and exclusion” (Dovchin, 2022, p. 10).…”

‘Stop Measuring Black Kids with a White Stick’: Translanguaging for Classroom Assessment

“…For some scholars, such a view of separate languages is an abstract ideological construction, which is highly questionable when it comes to describing and analysing everyday language use (Lee, 2017). These highly ideologised views of bi/multilingualism, in which the co-existence of two or more linguistic systems is central, and 'the enumerative strategy of counting languages' (Makoni and Pennycook, 2007: 251) seem to presuppose that there is a clear border between languages, and that these languages can be counted and classified (Dovchin, 2021;Dovchin and Dryden, 2021). The importance of opting for a more critical perspective is acknowledged by Heller (2007: 1), who provides an alternative way to understand language practices, as 'socially and politically embedded'.…”